ShareSpace- Ep6 From Ghibli Dreams to AI Reality: Balancing Speed with Creative Soul
You’ve probably seen them — those dreamy, Ghibli-style images all over the internet. Cozy cityscapes. Cats on balconies. Sunlit trains that never existed.
At this point, if you haven’t stumbled across one, I kind of envy your screen time.
But this post isn’t another “Look what AI can do!” celebration. It’s more of a pause. A reflection.
I’ve spent nearly 20 years working with designers, animators, and illustrators — people who pour hours into a single frame. Craft that requires patience, training, and a lot of soul.
Take Toy Story, for example. The original took 30 hours to render a frame. By the fourth film? 120 hours — even with better tech. Not because they had to, but because the detail mattered.
Now? With tools like GPT-4 and AI image generators, I can turn a photo into a Ghibli-style visual in 30 seconds.
It’s stunning. It’s fun. It’s powerful.
But it also makes me wonder — are we gaining speed at the cost of something deeper?
This isn’t about resisting technology. It’s about asking better questions. As creative professionals, how do we stay responsible? How do we balance innovation and intention?
